Almost a year ago, when Gov. John Hickenlooper polled his Cabinet and top staffers about where they stood on the death penalty, he was stunned by some of their answers.

Now, Coloradans are stunned by his.

Hickenlooper's decision to indefinitely delay the execution of convicted killer Nathan Dunlap came as an evolution on the issue, one that he admitted began with his leaning toward an "eye for an eye."

Hickenlooper read autopsy reports and viewed crime-scene photos. He researched what other states were doing, and the impact of the death penalty there. He talked to scores of people, including the victims' families.

"The way the governor makes decisions is he gets the broadest perspective from the most diverse group he can," said Mike King, Hickenlooper's director of the Department of Natural Resources.

"He immerses himself. In an issue like this you can't do a short turnaround, and I think that's why the discussion began so long ago. He was struggling with the decision."

At the time of that Cabinet retreat in June 2012, Dunlap's appeals were coming to an end. In 1993, he killed four employees and wounded another at an Aurora Chuck E. Cheese's restaurant where he once worked.

An execution date likely would be set for sometime in 2013, and the governor wanted to know where his staff stood.

"What we learned was Tom was not your basic career prison employee. His very soul was based in redemption and this idea that everybody has value," said King, a death-penalty foe. "That, frankly, is not something you'd expect from somebody who spent their life with the most hardened criminals society has to offer, and that clearly resonated with the governor."

As Hickenlooper polled the room, it was clear his administration was divided.

The governor's chief strategy officer, Alan Salazar, told the governor that while he personally opposed the death penalty, carrying out the execution would be the politically smart move.

"John made clear from the very beginning he wouldn't make the decision with politics as a context," Salazar said.

And from the firestorm that has resulted with Hickenlooper's decision announced Wednesday, it is clear the governor did not.

In a stunning move, Hickenlooper bypassed the two options he was expected to pick from: commute Dunlap's sentence to life in prison or allow the August execution to continue.

Instead, Hickenlooper signed an executive order granting a "temporary reprieve" that he said is unlikely to expire as long as he is governor. The decision paves the way for Hickenlooper's successor to allow Dunlap to be killed by the state as a jury of 12 decided in his 1996 trial.

Critics called the governor "gutless," a "chicken" and a "coward," and Republicans said it improved their chances of defeating the governor in his 2014 re-election bid.

Hickenlooper said he knew the decision would provide "political ammunition," but the reaction from some politicians "was a little more shrill than I expected."

He said he based his decision on the "facts" he found during his research, including reading Dunlap's psychological evaluations. He was haunted by a report from the state hospital that the prisoner sometimes went three days without sleeping.

"I don't think he was criminally insane, but according to the doctors you can't stay awake for more than three days and fake it," Hickenlooper said. "The notion that he had bipolar issues seemed more real."

Hickenlooper surveyed faith leaders who urged clemency — even taking a surprise call from Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the icon Hickenlooper sat next to at a PeaceJam dinner in Denver in 2006 when he was mayor.

He talked to the state's lawyer, Republican Attorney General John Suthers, who supports the death penalty and who, the governor said, "felt quite strongly that it played an important role in administering justice."

"He felt that retribution was an important part of the equation," Hickenlooper recalled.

In March, as the legislature was considering a bill to repeal the death penalty, Hickenlooper received a letter from former Gov. Dick Lamm. The Democrat, who served three terms as governor starting in 1975, urged Hickenlooper to consider the welfare of corrections officers.

"When I was there, we had some inmates who were already in for life and they would try to reach out and choke our guards," Lamm said. "We had to build 'dog cages' as barriers to prevent a careless guard from getting too close to the bars. A few bad actors would kill them for sport."

Lamm suggested if the death penalty were repealed, there should be an exception carved out for "three-time losers" already in prison for life without the possibility of parole.

Hickenlooper had a hand in stopping the death-penalty repeal effort, saying there needed to be more of a discussion around the state on the issue. He made the same argument when he announced Dunlap's execution was indefinitely delayed.

At the Cabinet retreat, staffer Salazar provided a historical perspective of the last execution in Colorado, in 1997, under Democratic Gov. Roy Romer. Salazar was the governor's deputy chief of staff.

"Romer did his own soul-searching — I know he took a call from the pope," Salazar said, calling Romer one of the most "compassionate and thoughtful" public servants he had ever worked for.

But it was a different time. Colorado in 1993 grappled with the "summer of violence," resulting in Romer's calling lawmakers into a special session to deal with growing gang and youth mayhem. In his re-election bid the next year, Romer supported the death penalty.

When Hickenlooper ran for office in 2010, he answered a Denver Post question about whether the death penalty should be repealed by saying: "No, but it should be restricted."

At the retreat, Hickenlooper's Cabinet directors and staffers were given a report about the Chuck E. Cheese's case that included photos of the bullet wounds, and court testimony from the victims about how in just five minutes Dunlap had created a lifetime of heartache,

The lieutenant governor said the package of information influenced his opinion that Dunlap should be put to death.

"I support the governor's decision completely," the lieutenant governor said.

Hickenlooper's chief of staff, Roxane White, an ordained minister, has long been opposed to the death penalty. That position didn't change even after the prisons chief was assassinated at his home in March and before she learned the suspect was a parolee killed in a shootout with police.

White admitted that not everyone who lined up in the Capitol's west foyer on the day of the announcement agreed with their boss' decision, but they were united in their support for Hickenlooper.

"A number of people said, 'John, I will support you regardless of what you do because at the end of the day, I don't have to make that decision,' " White said.

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